$130 Rebuy Close but no Cigar.

I ended up playing the $130 w $100 Reentry for the first hour and a half. and possible single or double add-ons at the break. Players started with 5k in chips and re-buys were 3k each if you bust you could double re-buy. blinds started at 25 50 and went up every 30 min and after 16 blind level were every 45 min like yesterday but today there were antes starting at the 8th blind level. Again the structure was not horrendous and gave me enough time to pick spots so I did what I could with what I had to work with. My table was pretty solid to start with no real maniacs but had a few bad players I could capitalize off of. I lost my first Buy in when I raised Pre to 325 at 50 100 with AQ and guy called in the SB called and it was heads up to the flop. I lost a pot previously to this and my stack was about 2650 after the raise. There was 750 in the pot and it fell K 10 5. He checks to me and I decide to shove Thinking its believable and didn't see the point in bleeding away my chips to commit me to the pot anyway. Well this guy tanks for a little bit (this became a trend....annoying trend to say the least) then decides to call with 10 9 off. awesome lol I don't catch up and Double re-buy for 6000.

Later, I get up to about 17,000 when I look down at KK in late position. A solid player that has me covered raises preflop to 1850 with blinds at 300 600 and I think for a bit and make my stand here. I raise to 5850 total everyone folds and the original raiser calls after he asks for a count. Flop is 2 5 2 with two clubs and he checks to me. I announce all in and my voice cracks like a 13 year old just hitting puberty loud enough to echo the room. I laugh and say, "Well I'm pretty sure I'm not getting paid off now thanks to the tell I just obviously gave haha" and everyone at the table laughs about it a bit and he folds and says he has AK. A few hands later I limp with Jd 2d in late position with no callers before me except for this really weak player who I was out playing the whole time. The blinds complete the action and we go to the flop. K J 2 fell and I am pretty pleased with the gift that fell in my lap. But it didn't stop there. One short stack announced All in and the weak opponent Decides to go all-in as well. They were about even with 7.5k each. I go all-in over the top to Isolate the fourth man out which was the SB and after he folds the hands are revealed. First shove has K 10 and Second shove has A Q off. I show my J 2 for two pair and ask for a deuce! Turn was the A giving more outs to both players but the River came a 6 and I knocked two birds with one stone!! This put me at about 34k and avg was around 16-17k. I continue to play solid poker picking my spots well and take my first ever picture of chips and send an update to friends (cause I hate taking pictures of chips...just think its cliche and then i go ahead and do it lol)

My chip stack before I went card dead.

At the second break I am Sitting with just over 42k and the avg is somewhere around 23-24k. I was just trying to focus on my table and the blinds and not really worry about the average stack. I go on a long run of dead cards and lost a few small pots to chip away at my stack. and have about 19k at blinds of 500 1000 with a 100 ante when I finally get a hand I choose to make a stand with but kind of played it bad. It worked out in my favor as I made a little bit more than I would have if I open shove but its whatever. I look at K 9 suited and raise to 3500 and bb (who has been playing alot of hands and called a bluff from me with a pair of 9s on a AA952 board) calls and it is heads up to the flop. The dealer slides out A Q 7 with two hearts and I bet 4500 and he just calls. The turn is the 10c and he checks to me again. I am getting a strong sense of weakness from him and the only chance I have to take this pot is to shove. So I go all in and enter the Twilight zone...I say this for two reasons. 1. because I go into my deep stare like I was looking at Hypnotoad from Futurama and 2. This guy went into the tank for LITERALLY 9 minutes and 30 seconds. He stared at me for 3 minutes, looked at his stack then counted out some chips. then stared at me again then asked me some random question which I forgot because I was in hypnotoad mode. I stayed silent, didn't move didn't say a word (Cause I didn't want my voice to crack again LOL) he finally, FINALLY folded and said he had a huge draw and I went to muck accidentally flipped over the huge bluff and he was just in utter amazement and kind of laughed in disbelief. He said he had a pair of Queens with heart draw and put me on a huge hand but didn't want to miss and be crippled to 3k in chips. I told him I was glad he finally acted cause I felt like I was gonna pass out haha.

Hypnotoad of the show Futurama to the right.
My allin blank stare face to the left (guy in suit)

(Dinner Break...time to get some grub courtesy of Beau Rivage meal ticket which I was surprised to get cause in the past they didn't give these out.)

More blinds, more folding, more antes, try to pick a spot and then fold then I win a decent little pot flopping top pair with KQ and open shoving from the BB to again put me at about 23k Then on the button I look at QJ suited and decide to just limp for 1200 at blinds of 600 1200 with 200 ante. SB and BB both had me covered and BB was the chipleader of the table. Flop comes Q 10 6 rainbow and both players check to me. I decide to bet 2400 thinking they were weak. SB folds but BB raises to 6000. I put him on like a pair of 10s and just sizing me up and playing at me cause he has a stack. I decide to go allin and it is another 12300 over the top and he tanks....this is another long thinker but not nearly as long as the 9 minute debacle I had to sit through. He asks me if I have KQ again and I didnt answer...like usual (hypnotoad mode ftw) He finally calls and shows Qs8s I am feeling confident having him crushed right now. Then the turn is the 4s giving him the flush draw. Now getting a little worried, he utters something like "ooh more outs" then the freaking 5s falls on the river to give him runner runner flush. There were 89 people to start the tournament and after all the rebuys and add ons the total prize pool was about 25-26k. Top 9 got paid and they made a deal to give 10th player $200 (Twenty bucks each) Well that shitty beat knocked me out at 18th. I again make a dinner break and play very good poker just to get teased lol. This time I got my money in way ahead so as long as I keep doing that, in the long run I will be profitable. Overall I was happy with my play, just not so much with the outcome.

I guess I can focus more on fantasy football now and get prepared for the baby's arrival and I'm sure I will be playing from time to time at local casinos but all that is left for now is the APP League schedule and Championship Free Roll. Sorry there couldn't have been more success on the trip but I hope you enjoyed the read.

Good Luck at the tables.
Matt Stroud

Biloxi....So Far..Not so good...

Well my poker experience has been minimal do to the sillyness of coolers so far. When we first arrive in Biloxi it was about 8:00 pm and I wanted to play a little bit of 1 2 NL at the IP Casino so I sat down with 140 just to see how I would do. The table played extremely tight passive poker and in about an hour and a half I got up to 260. There was just one semiloose guy and a young guy to my left that thought I was bluffing almost every time I played a hand and made 80 bucks just off him alone. When I won another decent pot and a guy I eventually got mixed up with (I'll call him Mr. Cool, because he was one of those players that thought he was better than everyone else but was the worst at the table.) he seemed interested in calling but mucked and the non believing young guy whispered "I think you were good". Well 2 hands later Mr. Cool is UTG and bets $10 with 2 callers in front of me I am on the button and call with Qs 10s and sb and bb fold. Pot is 43 bucks and flop comes Ah Kd Jh!!! whee flopped broadway. Mr. Cool bets 10 again..I'm thinking he has AA, AK, KK AJ or JJ here or even AQ, QQ bc I raise to 35 and he calls. the other 2 fold.

Pot is $120 and Turn comes 8c Mr. Cool bets $10 again...fucking idiot...and I Bet $100 with $115 left of my stack and he instantly calls. Of course the River pairs the board with the J and he shoves all in with a dumb comment like "I cant let you buy it..." I said dude, nice suck-out and called the all-in that barely had me covered and he shows AJ and says yea I sucked out...

Awesome, that's enough for me for one night.

Well I go swimming and relax until the tournament Today at 4pm for the Half NL and Half PLO and was having a good time. I felt really confident and was ready to play some more cards. Of course I was not aware that My shit luck was going to continue to streak down the street and follow me to Beau Rivage. The structure really wasn't horrible for its price. 30 min blind levels and blinds raising a decent time frame. it started Omaha and every blind revolution it would switch. I was surprised that it wasn't  based off blinds but this is how I had my league games setup so I was comfortable with the structure. I limped maybe 2 hands the first PLO round. Mucked all NL holdem then a hand where I was 75% favorite until River slapped me in my face and took over half my stack crushed me on 3rd revolution.

I am dealt JJAhQh and raise it up to 275 to open. get 2 callers. Sb and early position. Flop falls 9d 8h 5h and Sb bets 1/3 pot early pos call and I call with nut flush draw and inside nut straight draw with over pair. Turn 10d giving me the nut straight and SB bet again about 1/3 pot. early pos folds and I announce Pot which is 3475. She thinks for a little while then calls. River.......10 again of course. She looks at her chips and I could read this woman like an open book. She bets 3k of her remaining 5k I have about 4850 left and fold showing her my nut straight and laugh. She shows 10h 10s 9h 6c. I had her crushed the whole way until the river of course.

I kept folding and get blinded down to 2750 when look down at JJ and blinds are 50 100. early pos raise to 550 (?) I shove and then someone shoves behing me......AWESOME lol just didnt stop. early pos folds and guy behind me showed AA. I miss the flop which was 10 high and I would have got it in anyway. Miss the turn which was a blank, I ask the dealer to keep me alive and the river magically appears the Jd giving me the 2 outer. This bumped me back up to 5600.

final hand lost a little bit of chips and my stack is sitting at 4700. I look at AsJsKd8h and raise to 375 with blinds at 75 150. SB is the only caller and there is 900 in the pot. Flop comes AJ6 rainbow and Sb checks to me, I bet 800 and he bets pot. I have 2600ish left so just stick it in and he shows JJ7c3c of course.....
I miss my outs and finish 70 out of 86.

I will play cash game tonight to determine if I even want to attempt the $130 Rebuy tournament tomorrow at noon. But as of what I have seen so far, it hasn't looked too promising. My play has been good, just not the luckiest man in Biloxi to say the least.

Please treat me well poker gods.
Matt Stroud

APP update. Cash game profit

Me don't think me's ahead, but me has a chance!

Last night was the Last regular season NL Holdem game. I thought I played pretty well and won some decent pots. But just got in a frame of the tournament where I went completely card dead. To start the tournament, I worked my stack to 43k, (start with 15k) and after folding ALOT and losing a couple decent sized pots I was back down to 21.5k with 10 players left. The blinds and antes were slowly chipping at my stack and I was getting nothing to play with, nothing to steal with, and with the players at the table I had to pick my spots cause I had too wide range players directly to my Left. I hated this but its something you have to deal with in poker. My last hand of the tourney the player, directly to my left (I will call him "Luckbox Leprechaun" in this blog) had flat called my preflop raised to 4500 with blinds at 1000 2000 and a 500 ante. We were both in Mid late position and I was first to act. There is 12500 in the pot and flop falls 9 6 3 with one heart. I have Jc10c and we both check to the turn. Turn gives a 8h and I put him on a range of just over cards and wasn't really worried about the suits so I shoved with my open ended draw. I was thinking he had anywhere between AK - KQos and A10 - Q10 suited. My bet was17000 into a pot of 12500 which NORMALLY people would fold this if they had an avg stack of 35-45k. But Luckbox Leprechaun here was CL and the call was about 1/6 of his stack. What makes matters worse is I made the right read.....to an extent....as he says, "You see Matt here's my dilemma" and he turns over KhQh as he debates the call (this is fine in my house as I don't kill the hand like in a casino). I see his hand in my peripherals but make no movement with my body. But once I saw how big his draw was I knew this player was never laying it down and I was screwed. Pretty much just waiting for him to call. I was asking myself....wtf couldn't it have been KQos damn it haha. He calls and the Rainbow river to the pot of gold splashed an A of hearts to destroy what dreams I had of sucking out one of my 10 outs I had that were none heart. Oh well dealt to the players up to 3 handed where they made a deal to split the money and we began a cash game.

I pronounced that it was going to be .25 .50 half no limit holdem half pot limit omaha so I could get some practice for the Tournament in Biloxi.Only one player was kind of annoyed about this so we said she can sit out when Omaha came around but she decided to just go ahead and play (way to be a trooper!) She really
did not play that bad from what I thought and got mixed up in a couple tough hands, Especially for someone who just learned the game but still a good effort on her part (Luckbox Leprechaun's sister, Leprechaunette)

If Leprechaunette looked this good, I'm sure my wife wouldn't have allowed her into our house...sigh

Anyway, I had a decent stance on my Table. Solid TAG player directly to my left, Super LAG after him, Luckbox Leprechaun and Leprechaunette then Semi LAG directly to my right. We started out 7 handed and eventually at the wee hours of the morning (I'm at work on only 2 hours of sleep sheesh) ended the game at 4 handed. I had some very interesting pots and probably one of the biggest pots of the night in Omaha, but felt I played very well in both NL Holdem and PL Omaha tonight. If you recall last time I played a mediocre game in Holdem but I found I just had a perfect strategy against the Super LAG that I was letting him take control of the pot when I had monsters and just really only Reraising when the pot was substantial. There was one No Limit hand that I called a raise with 10h 7h against Super Lag and another opponent and flop fell 10c 7d 4h. I was OOP and checked, LAG Player bets other player calls and I call. turn is the Qh and I check again and Lag player bets about 1/4 the pot. Other player folds and I try to think of how much I could get out of him without scaring him away so I raise to $24 into a $36 pot and he has about $53 left I have him covered. He shoves all in and I instantly call with the flush draw and 2 pair. He asks if I'd like to run it once or twice (which kind of confused me, but I said twice just in case something stupid happened even though I was pretty confident I was ahead) I made the flush on the First series and the Full House on the second series to scoop the whole pot.

There were 3 big Omaha hands that I got involved in. One where I flopped an open ended straight draw and 2nd nut flush draw and turned the 2nd nut flush. The pot on the flop was already about 75-80 bucks (In .25 - .50!!!) and before I could even act, LuckBox Leprechaun shoves all in for just under $40 bucks. I knew he had the Nut flush...I hated that I knew he had the Nut Flush....and hated that I was still enticed to call (I had about 180 in my stack at the time) Calling wouldn't necessarily hurt me but This was a hand where I knew in my gut and my mind I was right but just hated the fact that it was a cooler and donated 38.75 to see it. ....damn rainbows and pots of gold. ;)

The other big hand that I lost, Super LAG caught a 1 outer on the turn where the flop was 9 9 6, I was holding 9 J Q K single suited, Leprechaunette had flopped the full house with 66 and Super Lag had a flush draw JJ A 8 (yea idk). Turn of course is the J giving Super Lag the biggest full house of the 3 of us and I feel like we were chopping when he bet, I just couldn't put him on that....probably for the fact that it was the ONLY card in the deck he could have hit to win the pot and BINGO he got it. He lost a decent sized pot a little bit earlier (See the 10 7 suited hand above) so I didn't give him too much shit for sucking out haha.
I also Later get revenge on the 2nd to last hand of the night in NL Holdem where I flop top 2 with K 9 and turn the 9 for the full house and he says he had AA. I managed to squeeze about 50 in that hand but I think he was trying to Catch up as fast as he could. I'm sure if he would have been thinking clearly and not about the past money lost, he could have gotten away from the hand but hey...to the winner goes the spoils?

The Final Big hand of Omaha was a 3 way pot and I have Ad 8d 9s 5h and there was a raise pre-flop to 2.00 with me and 2 other callers. 8.75 in the pot. The flop comes 7d 3d 2c and I have the Nut flush draw with an inside straight draw. It is checked to Solid TAG to my Left who bets 7.50 and Leprechaunette calls As well as myself. Turn is the 10c and there is about 31.50 in the pot. Leprechaunette checks to me and I just got an open ended straight draw to add to my plethora of outs. I am loving this but don't really want to check here and him just shout "Pot" at me again and have to draw making a call for about 1/3 of my stack (have 75ish in my stack he has 58ish) I decide to bet $23.00 and Solid TAG goes in the tank, then finally announces Allin for 36.25 over my bet for 59.25 total. Leprechaunette grumbles and mumbles then finally muck and I am just trying to figure out how the hell I can get away from this or if he could cancel out any of my outs. I put him on a set of 7s for sure and wanted to get the flush draws away but I am pretty sure there is no way he puts me on the straight draws with it. Especially the added draws on the turn. I say Call and he asks Once or twice and I say its pretty much up to you and he says he's cool with twice so we roll the river twice. He shows 4c 3c 3s 6s with a set of 3s and an inside straight draw with the 5. All of my possible outs except the 2d and 10d are good giving me 20 good outs to win this hand! The first river dealt gives me the flush. The next river dealt is a 6 giving me the straight and it propels me to $240 (Unfortunately the cooler hand with King high flush vs. Ace high flush was about 4 revolutions after this but still managed a nice profit)

How I felt when I won that big Omaha pot

I ended up being in the game for $95 and cashing out $220. I tipped the dealer $20 for dealing for us the whole time. I actually did run well for the cash game having a bit of a horseshoe up my ass as well but there were some great plays that I made to maximize my profits and only pulled off a couple bluffs for minimal sized pots. Overall I was happy with my play for the night and the added funds will go nicely for my Biloxi Trip. Hope you enjoyed the read.

Good Luck at the tables.
Matt Stroud

Building Anticipation for GCPC and Fantasy Football

Gulf Coast Poker Championship
Haven't wrote in a while. My break from casinos feels like it is lasting forever when it has only been 2 months. It is getting closer to the Gulf Coast Poker Championship in Biloxi, MS. I am ready to go play and excited to play some Half n Half. I wasn't able to sell all of my action but I have a good portion of it sold. 25% so I will be adjusting the action to 7.5% on just 2 events
Those events are the $230 Half NLHE Half PLO on Tuesday August 30 and the $130 multiple Re Entry on Wednesday August 31. If I have success in those I will most likely extend my stay for one more day to play the $230 1R/1A on Thursday. I don't plan on investing much in re-buys for the multiple reentry tournament but I'm sure there will be players that will be loose cannons that I can build a stack off of. I even convinced a poker buddy to come with me as I got my room for 2 queens since they were out of just 1 King rooms. I much prefer going with someone I can discuss poker with rather than just go to events by myself. The wife will be tagging along as well so she'll most likely be basking in the sun and finding random ways to blow money but as long as she lets me focus in the poker room it will be all good.

APP League
I have to say I am very confident and will be using this Friday's League game (last Texas Holdem regular season game of the year) as practice for the Biloxi Trip. I mostly want to work on my patience and not getting involved in pots that don't have alot of + EV. I don't want to over value my suited connectors and keep pots small that need to be small and maximize pots that need to be huge. If I can accomplish this will playing most pots in position I know I will be able to cruise to success. other than the League game this friday will be the last League game on Sept. 9 which is NL 2-7 Single Draw which should be interesting and the Championship FreeRoll for the top 9 point earners for the year which will be Sept. 23. I am currently in 2nd in points and 6 points behind the first place player. Im gunning for First to earn an extra $200 but as it stands I am lined up to get atleast $100 of the bonus winnings for either Most Final Tables or Most cashes. I am also in the hunt for Mixed games champ in second with 4 points behind. I also added a 24 person Head Up tournament to the schedule just because I have been wanting to play one live and it should be pretty fun. The top 8 players will have a first round Bye. 9-24 will play to advance to the next round. Most likely the top 4 will be paid so it should be a decent prize and good competition. Seeding will be based on the point standings for the APP league.

The seeding will be as follows:
1 vs (16/17)
8 vs (9/24)
6 vs  (11/22)
4 vs (13/20)
3 vs (14/19)
5 vs  (12/21)
7 vs  (10/23)
2 vs (15/18)

 I have been playing around with bleaching designs on shirts but only like a couple of them so far So idk how much time or money I will invest as far as that goes. I also want to try spray painting designs but again if it doesn't come out good it won't be worth the investment. Don't want to make Shirts that no one will want to wear. I had a Screen Printing company that would make my previous shirts but they are just completely unorganized, unprofessional. I guess that is what I should expect when dealing with a mom and pop printing company though. The worst part is every time I go to order more shirts they have a different price and its always higher than what it was. I have to bring in the receipt for the previous purchase every-time when proving to them that it isn't the right price. They stay busy as hell but IDK how because there is nothing professional about them and the last batch of shirts they made for me were more on the bleh side.

Fantasy Football
I am so excited about football and sooo happy the football season is back (my wife does not share the mutual feeling...So I plan on torturnig her 4 nights a week for the next 3 months). I missed tailgating the UL Ragin' Cajun games and there has been so much anticipation built up around Coach Hudspeth and the new Recruits it is ridiculous! I expect to see a huge crowd for the first home game and hopefully for the rest of the season.
Last year I said I wasn't going to play Fantasy football for money but instead I got in 2 leagues this year for More money haha. My original league is drafting Sept. 4 right before the NFL season begins and it is a $50 league. I also joined one of  Will "Poker Monkey" Souther's $100 leagues which has 16 teams! That draft is Aug 27 and coming up soon! The largest league I've been in previously had 12 teams so the draft should be stupid deep and whoever picks the best 3rd stringers and back up QBs will have the best season! Its all about finding those Hidden Gems. I am still yet to see the payouts in these leagues though but they should be awesome! I'll post my teams once I have drafted. Just in case some of y'all are reading this though I'm not giving away any drafting plans. Just gonna play it by ear and take what everyone gives me lol.

Peace.
Matt Stroud

Weekend Poker rundown

The Usual suspects of APP

Friday night was our APP league game. 2nd to last NL holdem and 3rd to last game of the season for points. The Championship Freeroll for the top 9 players is towards the end of September and there is a very close race from the players that are in the 6-13 spots. It will be a very exciting last 2 games and I also bought the Trophy which isnt huge but I really like it and is a great conversation piece. Last year I got a plaque but decided to go with the trophy for this year because I think they just look better overall and was about the same price for what I thought was a better product. As far as my play friday night I was not focused at all and pretty much going through the motions. I was tired from work, was still in rush mode for setting up the game, and The Saints first preseason game was on so I was kinda peeping my eyes on that as well. I made a horrible read on an opponent (well I put him on mid PP and was right about that, just not about the strength from the flop) I was holding Q 9 suited in late position and flop came 9 6 2. The bb who is a pretty LAG player bets into the pot and middle pos opponent reraised. I put the mid opp on PP 88 77 etc. and the bb player on straight draw. So thinking Im ahead I shove all in and bb folds. Middle Pos opponent goes in the tank, says something about 36% for a flush draw then flips over top set and calls. I was like wow, didnt put you on that at all and was wondering why he didnt insta-call lol.


Well we set up a cash game 0.25 0.50 NL holdem, I wanted to do half n half but 2 players declined. Everyone bought in for 30-40 and the grind began. I Won a decent pot, then picked a spot where I had middle pair and open ended straight draw. I bet it hard when the straight card came and almost took down the pot but someone just called a 6x bet pre-flop with 6 5 off and turned the low end of the straight. He was about to fold thinking I had the High end but ended up calling and took a hefty chunk of my chips. That's how most of the night went for me. Either picked bad spots and lost pots, won some pots with decent hands, then busted when people caught on me etc.

One hand a player considered was a "Bad play by both players" which was my last hand of the night I was just exhausted, annoyed and overall done after this. I straddled for $1 with $20 behind and the LAG player was in the bb for .50 and he was in the hole for the game but had about $65-70. there were 3 or 4 limpers and LAG bb raises to 5.25. There is 9.25-10.00 in the pot and I have 98 off. I know he is raising with a speculative hand here and figured I can get him off of it by coming over the top. but I didn't have enough to raise a portion of my stack so it was either all in or fold. I opted to go all in for 21.00 total and everyone folded and LAG player goes in the tank. Then a player out of the hand says "OK 2 of you HAVE to put each other on a hand first" I should have just stayed quiet not saying anything but like a dumb ass I chose to play along and put him on KQ or something to that range (A10, KJ, A9s) Since I said that he put me on 88 and gave some goofy logic saying "well I'm behind, I'm down some money and playing catch up, its virtually a coin-flip so I call"...lol
Flop comes out 9s 6d 5h and I have the lead but he still has 2 overs as he shows As 10s and I say give me the 7 just to cushion my lead more.
Turn is the 6s giving him more outs with the flush draw. And I ask again, Give me the damn 7....
River 8s giving me 2 pair but him the flush...and that's how I roll (Rolls eyes)

I just kinda laughed got up, LAG goes into justifying his play and saying it wasn't a bad call, I say yes it was, then Superstar says Y'all both made bad plays and the discussion ensued how I disagreed. You can base an argument on strategy, but when you incorporate results with strategy your logic is flawed. The thing I messed up on was playing into the game by putting him on a range when I should have just sat quietly and waited for him to act. But it wasn't a bad play at all in my opinion.

The next night we played Half NL holdem Half PL Omaha and my friends house in Carencro.
It was 4 of us from last night and 3 new faces I haven't played before. I was spot on with my reads in Omaha but early on picked a couple bad spots in Holdem, made some adjustments and played solid poker after that. I ended up profiting $35 for the night as I let someone borrow $20 of my stack and also cashed out $100. I was in the game for $85 and thought I played pretty well for the most part. I had an interesting Omaha hand Where the friend that was hosting was to my direct right all night and raised preflop to 1.50 I called along with 2 others making it 6 in the pot. flop came 989 and I told him I am only calling cause I like half my hand. Q9 suited 7 2 off, I was in the bb for .50 and needed to call 1.00 more into a pot that was already 3.00 so i figured why not. When I saw the flop i liked what I saw and they did have a possible flush draw as well so he bet 3.00 into a 6.00 pot and I raised pot immediately to get everyone else off their hand. He went into the tank for about 2 minutes then said Pot to me. I start to think about it and the Trip 9s is all I have, it was very possible for him to have A high flush draw with his trips or even flopped a boat with 88 and just didn't like it as I would have to call about 25-30 so i made the lay down and he showed 98 for the boat.

There was another hand where I had A4A8 double suited and hit the flop pretty hard with an inside straight draw and flush draw and guy who went all in asked to go once or twice, so I initially put him on flush draw and said once. He shows TOP SET 99 with no redraw so I need to hit my flush or one of the last 2 aces in the deck. I missed the turn. Then BOINK the Ace on the river!! I also made an interesting play against a player who had AA and not much of a redraw on a 10 4 7 board I was holding a back door flush draw and inside straight draw with top pair. We opted to run it twice as he was ahead statistically but slightly. First I hit the 10 on the turn for trips to take the pot. The next one I hit my runner runner flush! It was gross.

I have to say the best hand of the night goes to Mr.LAG though Beau Brewer. He made a spectacular play on my friend who was hosting in Texas Holdem with a J 8 6 board. There was a raise preflop by Beau and host called. Beau checked on the flop and host bet 2.75 into $4 pot Beau raised to $6. The host went in the tank then 3bet to $20 (when he does this I expect him to win the pot almost 80% of the time if not more because he plays a very solid game). Beau must have had either picked up a tell or had a dead on read on his opponent because without even thinking he announce all in and had the host well covered. I believe the host had about $40-50 behind and Beau had $80-100 after the $20 was in the pot. I was thinking to myself this guy has a monster to snap shove like this and I guess the host was thinking the same thing as he folded but didn't show (I put him on top pair, maybe KJ or AJ but not strong enough to feel confident calling all in). Then Beau turns over 9 8 off for 2nd pair on the biggest bluff of the night!

Pretty much my face after seeing the 9 8 off with a 4bet shove all in

I was literally left speechless after this as it was just a top of the line play and we were playing .25 .50 haha. We kept on giving him shit like where the hell did that come from etc., but some nights He is dead on and playing spectacular poker maximizing his profits consistently while other nights he is completely off his game and struggling to keep a composed head. Once this guy becomes more consistent though, he will definitely be a force to be reckoned with. He finished the game up $240 and I profited a small amount but was down the previous night so it felt like I broke even. the host also broke even for the night as most of the other players all ended up in the negatives.  I plan on playing half n half at least once or twice before I go to Biloxi, MS for the GCPC but so far I am really confident in my Omaha game. I just have to make sure I play solid poker and not get involved in pots I don't need to be involved in for holdem.

That was my weekend in a nutshell, hope you enjoyed the read.

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud

BankRollerCoaster Pt. 2

When you last read, I was explaining the occurences of my first melt down involving my Poker bankroll that did not completely make me broke but put a healthy dent in my Roll. Enough of which would stick to my mind and possibly affect my play leading to the next meltdown that resulted Early this year.

Louisiana State Poker Championships, Isle of Capri Lake Charles
Once again, I regained my confidence, Cashed or Won 4 straight weekly tournaments at the local casino as well as went on a span of either Winning or cashing consecutively in my home game as well from Early January up until Late march. I was close to being back even from what I lost in the time span of October-November 2010 and couldn't wait to continue climbing up the later. I went spend a weekend in Lake Charles for the Louisiana State Poker Championships in the month of April 2011 and pulled of a Nice profit playing the 5 5 NL cash games there but the first day was rocky as I was in the negatives. The following day I had a huge day grinding the cash games from 10 am - 9 pm to pull a $1200 profit, giving me a $400 profit for the weekend. This was a good thing, but again, I felt a need to chase the money I had loss and showed more compulsive tendencies rather than well thought out calculated risks. I was playing in Lake Charles in preparation for the next upcoming Tournament event series in New Orleans, LA in May.

The WSOP Circuit Regional stop Harrah's New Orleans
I was going to make my name here, I was planning to play multiple tournaments and go deep in atleast one. I brought a significant amount of my bankroll to do so and only planned on using half of it. This was another bad idea and lack of discipline managing my bankroll. Especially with the previous occurences I have been having with my brand new habit of chasing my money. The first day I arrived, I went directly to the 1/2 NL table as I never had a losing session (out of about 8 experiences) at Harrahs casino in New Orleans. knowing this I was extremely confident, but needless to say I was about to get the coldest deck I could ask for and definitely the worst timing possible. It started out with my AA getting cracked by KK for a $300 pot leaving me short stacked so I bought in for another $200. I then got involved with a guy who fell in love with his flush draw and shoved the flop when I flopped 2 pair. Naturally the pattern of this trip was I call when way ahead and get drawn out on saying good bye to my chips. I ended the day with a $400 loss and figured I would make up for it on day 2.

I entered the biggest field in a $340 tournament with 676 entrants (I believe Captain Tom Franklin went on to win this event) and was put at the same table as a friend of mine oddly enough. I really liked my table as they were very easy to read. I picked my spots perfectly, avoided players when I had to, got involved with the weak players when I had to, things were going great. got passed the dinner break. Our table broke up and I was moved to a new table on the short stack and the aggressive Chip Lead of the table was to my direct Right. This sucked for me as I had to pick spots to take blinds and rebuild my stack but yet avoid getting derailed by this guy who seemed to almost raise every other hand. The first two times I shoved my 12-17bb stack everyone folded and i raked the antes and blinds. but the last time....the Big Blind decided to wake up with KK and my 10 9 suited didnt touch the flop what so ever. I was out 130-140ish and the top 80 paid.
I still wanted to play though (thinking I can try to atleast get my buyin back....more chasing thoughts) and buy in to a $125 sit n go. I come out 5th when I shove 77 and get called by JJ and get knocked out.

I have $180 left in my wallet and decide to put it down at 1/2 NL again. My table is mostly filled with loose drunks and passive nits. I am doing great and taking advantage of this table. I work my stack up to $735 and did something I told myself I wouldnt do. I gave myself a number to reach before I got up from the table. I was shooting for $800 when 3 hands knocked me down to $320. First, 2 pair lost to a rivered straight. Next, drunk guy was calling with A high and I have JJ on 10 high flop trying to bet him off the hand. Ace hits turn and drunk guy went from talking non stop to immediately quiet (while rotating in circular motions of drunkness of course) then shoves all in.....we both had about $500 and I just rolled my eyes then folded. Very Next hand I am UTG and look down at QQ. the standard raise was $12-15 and I had a very loose image and was raising alot so this passive nit in late position reraised to $40. I go in the tank, try to put her on a hand and figure she thinks im trying to bully the table again so I reraise her to $150 (I now wish I would have just flatted to see the flop and spike the Q because I would have stacked her if I did so.) She immediately goes all in for about $600 and has me covered. If I call this and lose I would be broke and just the way she played it screamed AA or KK here. I go in the tank...I then look at her and she is looking at the felt, not me and I ask her....Do you have Aces or Kings?? and she looks at me and say, "Which one do you want it to be." (I was thinking to myself JJ but I knew I was beat and folded the Queens face up to show her I had a huge hand. She later told me it was Aces and I played with the person back home that was sitting on the left of her that she flashed her cards to. When I brought the story back up again at our local casino she did confirm that it was pocket aces. Back to the cash game I managed to get back to $500 after a couple hours, then at 3 am, my last hand I played was 9d 8d and flop fell 8s 9h 3s. I bet got 2 callers and a drunk rich looking frat kid says "All in" then smirks at his goofy Frat brother who thought he was the comedian of the table. I Called and the other 2 folded. the pot was just over $1000 and the frat boy showed As 5s...I needed to sweat any spade to take down this pot...and of course on the river. the Q of spades slaps me in my face.

Local Casino Tournaments
This was just disgusting and I continued to try to play the local casinos tournaments and cash game but could tell that I was playing bad due to the beats that I have experienced in New Orleans. I wasn't playing my A game and was trying to play through it instead of taking a much needed break. I continued to play once or twice a weak until mid July at casinos when my last straw was 3 horrible cold decks in a row. The First experience seemed like every other pot I was involved I had 2nd best and then left when I misplayed AA in early position against a super aggro rich guy and allowed pocket 8s to see a flop as well because I failed to Reraise everyone else off the hand preflop. Naturally on the flop he gets his 8 and I don't catch up. The next week I play the tournament and flop top 2 pair and lose because someone decided to try and be superman by shoving Ah Qs on a Kh 10d 9h board and I have Ks 9s not going anywhere. The turn and river are running Hearts and I get knocked out because a guy who normally plays super Tight and I put him on AK shoves with Ace high and sucks out. Finally I am getting bad beats and shove my short stack with AK off and get called by 3 4 off and he said he was calling cause 4s having been hitting every flop. This may be true because the dealers are incapable of correctly washing the deck after each hand and of course the 4 hit and I don't catch up. This hurt my roll down to about $400. I was no longer able to play at the casino safely and needed to take a break for multiple reasons but mostly to build my confidence back up.

Since that time I have not been at the casino and been just playing home games and small cash games .25 .50 to try and rebuild as well as putting money to the side. I have learned from my mistakes and trying to practice better bankroll management skills. I have been studying more and more during the days that I do not play. I will do my best to make sure I don't repeat the faults that I have recently because with proper bankroll management I could be sitting on a profit instead of in the negatives for trying to chase my money. I did not respect my limits and showed poor decisions rather than keeping a level head and trying to make the best decisions financially and strategically.Since then, I have noticed a turn around in profits once again and my confidence is beginning to come back.

I hope you can learn from the mistakes that I have made reading this. Success in poker is majorly correlated with the management of your bankroll. The best players in the world could also go broke with poor habits or decisions. Good practice will create more success!

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud

BankRollerCoaster Pt. 1

I'm sure if I put this much effort into anything in life that I would find great success. I would have probably got my degree without losing my scholarship in college (Even though I lost it because I had finished a semester with 11 credits instead of 12 after dropping one class and the administration didn't even give me a chance to take a summer class to regain my scholarship GRRR) I could have maybe started my own business. There are endless possibilities that my mind, hell anyone's mind, is capable of accomplishing but it is just amazing that it depends on how much passion you have in something that you are willing to truly excel in what grasps the majority of your attention. For me its something that its a constant struggle. It is something that I have to try to be successful at with a limited amount of funds to do so, never really having a lot of wealth but working my ass off just to get where I am today.

At the beginning of the year I was doing pretty well at poker but over a course of 2010-2011, I was managing my bankroll horribly. It started with me having success on Full Tilt poker back in February and March of 2010. I did my usual $50 deposit and decided to play a cheap satellite to a $535 tournament (Forgot which one) but there were like 64 people that entered and was a huge overlay, but unfortunately only 1 place was paid for the seat.....well that person was me. I grinded out the win and instead of playing the

How I felt when talking to Full Tilt support when trying to cash out.

tournament, I unreg'd and traded the T$ for about $503.25 real money. I decided to play (Out of my bankroll btw) Six handed 1/2 cap NL poker. I liked this because there was a cap to the size of money you can bet per hand. I believe at 1/2 it was $60-80, 2/4 it was $100-140, and 3/6 was $150-200. I can't remember exactly but I would play 1/2 and got my bankroll up to $860 so I decided to play 2/4 cap and worked it up to $1500. I mainly stayed at 2/4 and played around in 3/6 every now and then until about March I wanted to cash out what I worked up to $2600. I was going to keep the original $500 in the FTP account and cash out $2100 when the cashier and support were making it extremely difficult. They wanted more identification so I provided it with my Driver's License. 2 days later they wanted me to provide monthly billing statements which I questioned at first then provided proof of address and blocked out the rest of the information (Which I saw to be private that wasn't their business) and they said it must be the full document. I wasn't going to choose the wire transfer option because the bank was going to reject the transaction and I would have been out of my money completely. Well during this whole process I was slowly beginning to go on tilt, and ended up staying at the current limits I was at and it was affecting my play. Needless to say by May 2010 I lost what I built up on Full Tilt and this made me feel like shit. I vowed I would never play online poker again. I dabbled in and out of different websites but never for a lot of money and by January 2011 I requested Support closed any accounts I had online and that was that. Luckily I got this done before Black Friday of Online Poker occured!!

When I started playing more live poker, I experienced some success Late August - October 2010. I was cashing my home games and local casino tournaments, went down to Lake Charles and Played the Fall Poker Classic in September and cashed in both events that I played but had to go back to work and missed out on the main event which I was feeling completely confident in playing. I then went to IP Biloxi in October for their WSOP circuit and played in a $235 Mega-satellite. It awarded $2000 in tournament chips and $250 in cash for every 10 players that entered the tournament. There were 86 players that entered and top 8 got this prize. I was once again playing superb poker and my fundamentals were dead on as I was able to make the top 8 and was prepared to free roll for the rest of my weekend. Well I decided to play one more tournament (A $340 buy in) and then play just cash games. I lost the tournament i entered halfway through the field then had minimal success at the cash games finishing -$250 and ended up bringing home $1350 after paying for hotel and expenses as well. This is a pretty good weekend but It also made me get greedy and want more. So I got cocky and made another trip the very next weekend and met up with a couple poker buddies that allowed me to crash in their room. I brought $1000 in cash with me and went back to the 1-2 NL cash game. I would buy in for $200 at a time and had the worst run of luck I have ever witnessed. Got 3 outed twice, was in a huge pot in the lead with a set when someone  rivered the flush against me and after 1 more buy in I was busted at 3 a.m.on a Saturday morning. I was playing like a compulsive gambler chasing my money and not like a level headed poker player making calculated risks. I could feel myself getting more and more angry or frustrated but instead of leaving, I stayed and played in hopes that my luck would change. But the fact of the matter is, I didn't want to accept that it wasn't my luck that was bad, it was my mental image. It was my lack of confidence. I was off my game and stayed there dumping my chips until they were all gone. I immediately left without telling the guys bye. I called them about 25 minutes away from home and said sorry but I just had to get out of there. During  my 4 hour journey home I was stuck thinking of the stupid actions that I decided to take in blowing my winnings, but didn't have an answer to avoid it from happening again.

My success of 2010 was short lived as I quickly expended the winnings in hopes to jump up in bigger stakes and get a larger bankroll. I was trying to get ahead of myself and instead of thinking rationally and actually taking my time to build my bankroll, I would risk it at every possible chance and would play out of my bankroll trying to beat the fish at the game. Unfortunately, when I would take a bad beat I would not have enough funds to reload and keep playing, thus leaving the game with a loss and another dent to my funds.
I didn't see the pain of this until my next encounter since I began to flirt with going broke while experimenting with my strategy and seeing my balance after paying bills....

Poker Books and Training websites

I figured This would be a good time to give my thoughts on some really great training tools for poker. If you are serious about your game, you will want to do as much studying, research, and practice as you can in order to be successful.I have read multiple books through my tenure of learning the game and have alot more that I would like to read. The thing I find helpful when reading Poker books is getting other peoples understanding on how they play the game and actually see their explanation or thought process in particular situations or hands vs. tricky or deceptive opponents.

Education is our Friend

You will notice that since the Poker Boom of 2003, there are multiple poker books that hit the shelves whether it be mathematical to psychological, you have to weed the good material from the bad.  It is also important to find which books compliment your style of play so it will be incorporated in your game with a smoother transition rather than trying to understand the methods of LAG (Loose Aggressive)  if you're a TAG (Tight Aggressive) player or vice versa because your thought process on many things will contrast and you may not agree that it is the best line to take in situations. Poker in general is read dependent, player dependent, stack dependent, etc. so its hard to play a single hand correctly the exact same way EVERY TIME. If you do this you need to stop because it is basically making you an open book to those that are observant at the table. With that said you will not be able to maximize your profits on key hands or key situations. If you want to be successful in poker, you must be deceptive.

Anyway, here are a few suggestions that I think are great Poker reads for your collection to Learning more about the game you love to play.

Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Vol. 1 and 2
Authors: Eric (Rizen) Lynch, Jon (PearlJammer) Turner, Jon (Apestyles) Van Fleet

These books are very well written and the commentary and explanation on their play of key hands in tournaments they have won are very helpful as they discuss betting patterns, pot sizing, and pot odds/implied odds. None of the books I will suggest are for the beginners who are trying to learn the game as it may be a bit over their head but if you play a TAG style then you may find that you can correlate this perfectly into your style of play.







Kill Everyone: Advanced Strategies for No-limit Hold'em Poker Tournaments and Sit-n-go's
Authors: Lee Nelson, Tysen Streib, Steven Heston, Joe Hachem (Foreword), Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier

This book is very intense and fun to read. It has a strong understanding for the mathematics of the game and exploits weaknesses in passive opponents. It is a great read for the Super LAG player and even good for someone who is trying to disect the brain of a Loose Aggressive Maniac at the table. If you plan on incorporating this into your game I would say enjoy the ride because there is alot of varience involved.












Read'em and Reap: A career FBI agent's guide to decoding poker tells
Authors: Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins, Phil Hellmuth

Now everyone has heard of the book Mike Caro's Book of Tells. I have read this book and there is some good content. A much shorter Read though is the one I have mentioned here. It has Some really great insight on subliminal tells a player may not realize they are revealing. Joe Navarro is the Ex FBI agent and he has some interesting information I have used at the table and is dead on, You can even practice by watching some players at the WSOP making these tells and get a read on what they might have. If you haven't noticed they have been having a section during the WSOP Broadcasts with him explaining what he is witnessing on the players body language. The best part I like about this book is that he expresses the signs as either "Strong/weak" "confident/nervous". The really talented players will give off reverse tells so the Author stresses to be wary of this.

Another very useful tool I have found that is free is Cardplayer Poker School
There is an unlimited amount of Articles and Videos that discuss multiple strategies about the game. You can also quiz yourself after viewing, reviewing, and studying each section of this awesome tool. It gets explanations from many great Live and Online pros each having their own twists of situations they have experienced through their years of play at the table. Other than that the best way to gain knowledge is by playing as much as you can and analyzing your own play as well as discussing poker with a group of friends or mentors as much as possible.

I didn't put the most obvious books like Doyle Brunson's Super Systems, Harrington on Holdem, etc because I believe these are Hidden Gems that have alot of great poker intel and may be unfamiliar to most.

If you have any suggestions of Books or websites that have helped you in your journey to success let me hear it!

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud